The Charge

The Case

The philosopher Frederich Nietzsche said, "Without music, life would be
an error." I'm not sure there's a statement in the history of philosophy
that I am more apt to agree with. Music has always been a big part of my life,
but I was playing guitar for more than ten years before I became seriously
interested in how the instrument was put together. Sure, I knew all the parts,
but I knew very little about the journey from a tree in the forest to a stringed
instrument in my hands. Through reading some excellent books (included the
highly-recommend Clapton's Guitar), I gained a pretty thorough knowledge
of how guitars are built (at least as much knowledge as can be gained without
building one myself). Now, I'm jealous of pianists, because with the release of
Note By Note: The Making of Steinway L1037 , they have an amazing
opportunity to see how one of the greatest piano manufacturers of all time takes
trees and turns them into the kind of instruments that the best and most
demanding artists want to play. The appeal of Note By Note extends beyond
those who play or listen to the piano. No, this film is for anyone who
appreciates handcrafted objects, family run businesses, and the pride that comes
from doing the best job possible no matter the cost.

Note By Note is a film of many stories, but the primary thread
follows piano L1037 from planks of wood although way to installation in the
Steinway Concert Division show room. Along the way we hear from the craftsmen
and women who put the instrument together as well as some of the companies
executives. Because much of the year it takes to build a piano involves waiting,
this main story is intercut with interview footage of various famous pianists
(including Harry Connick Jr.) waxing poetic about the Steinway product. We also
get to see the Steinway Concert Division, where various pianos are available to
artists who need a Steinway. Here we watch pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard try to
find the perfect piano to compliment the piece he will be playing at Carnegie
Hall. It's this latter story that gives the film its tension, as Aimard goes
from piano to piano, dissatisfied with the particular attributes of each piano
but needing one before his approaching performance deadline.

The main attraction of the film is getting to see how pianos of the stature
of those made by Steinway and Sons are built using techniques that have not
altered significantly in the last hundred years. They use the most number of
handcrafted pieces and artisan techniques of any manufacturer. It really does
take a year to create such an amazingly complex instrument, including three(!)
different rounds of tuning alone over several weeks. Just watching this would be
fascinating enough, but we also get to hear the stories of the various workers
who build the pianos. Many are immigrants, many have been working there for
decades, and a large percentage them grew up in the shadow of the factory. It's
obviously a very familial atmosphere; as workers put it, despite the fact that
none of them make enough to afford a Steinway, they all take pride in having
built something so wonderful.

The interviews are a little less compelling, if only because the artists are
trying to describe the ineffable qualities that make a particular piano special.
However, they're bolstered by the fact that each of the artists plays a little
something at least once, and it's a treat to watch masters of the instrument
perform, however briefly.

Finally, the arc of Pierre-Laurent Aimard provides an interesting insight
into the world of Steinway and Sons. Each piano is different, and therefore is
suitable to different players and different pieces. Because of the high price
tag (we're talking luxury car to nice-house prices, depending on the model),
most artists can't afford to keep a fleet of Steinways in reserve. Enter the
Concert Division. Here, Steinway rents out pianos to artists, and it's amazing
to watch Aimard sit down at a dozen pianos, play them beautifully, but still
walk away unsatisfied with their use for his piece. It really reinforces just
how unique each instrument really is.

As a DVD, Note By Note is sure to make some happy customers. This was
obviously not the most extensively budgeted film, but there were no visual
problems that distracted from the story of the piano's journey. The audio,
however, is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, all praise is due to the
on-site sound recorder. Some of the interviewees go from talking normally to
banging on a piano loudly in the space of a few seconds, and the music always
sounds clear and free of distortion. It's an impressive feat that filmmakers
would do well to study. However, somewhere in the mixing of the track the
dynamics got a bit messed up. The difference between loud and soft sounds is
much greater than it probably should be, and more problematically, seems
inconsistent from scene to scene. It's not unlistenable, but a hand on the
remote will almost certainly be necessary. The movie only runs 84 minutes, but
this DVD includes over 80 minutes of deleted scene and extra interviews for
those who can't get enough of the Steinway story.

Note By Note is a moving documentary about how a group of very
different people come together to make a world-class instrument with time-tested
techniques. The film shows the value of taking pride in your work and treating
your job as something more than a way to earn a living. The fact that a
beautiful instrument comes out at the end is just a bonus. I highly recommend
this film to anyone with an interest in music and how it gets made.